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Who Dey Revolution Manifesto

Preamble

IN THIS TIME of perpetual Cincinnati Bengals incompetence and futility, with zero playoff wins in the nineteen seasons since the WhoDeyRevolution Godfather, Paul Brown, passed away in 1991 and handed the team to his fortunate son, the Despot, Mike Brown;

Introduction

WE, the members of the Who Dey Revolution, in our fervent dedication to the Cincinnati Bengals and fanatical desire to transform our hometown team into perpetual Super Bowl contenders, call for a popular revolution of fans to demand comprehensive reform to the managerial decisions and approach of Cincinnati Bengals ownership, management, staff and players, and hereby call for the adoption of the following Who Dey Revolution Manifesto:

Manifesto Demands

THAT the Mike Brown, Katie Blackburn, Marvin Lewis, along with every other member of the Bengals management, staff and personnel, state publicly to all Bengals fans, “I will do everything in my power to help the Cincinnati Bengals win a Super Bowl;”

THAT Mike Brown will hire a general manager, drastically expand the scouting department and relinquish all control of player personnel;

THAT all training, rehabilitation and medical facilities are considered best-in-class compared to other NFL teams;

THAT the management fill the team only with players who fit the system, both mentally and physically, and are not reluctant to makes changes to player personnel when needed, regardless of cost or loyalty concerns;

THAT offensive and defensive line depth is considered the top priority for all player personnel decisions;

THAT all decisions made by ownership, management, staff and players, both on and off the field, are judged only by this criterion: “Does this help the Cincinnati Bengals win a Super Bowl?”

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August 14, 2012

KSK Fan Preview

The machinery at WDR is slowing creaking to life as the season approaches. The friendly-yet-offensive folks at KSK reached out to us to write a few paragraphs from the fan perspective. You can find it via this link. We're reproducing our blurb below but check out the full preview at KSK.

It’s strange territory for long time Bengals fans this offseason. There’s actually reason to have hope. We’re not talking about homer-based auto-hope that perpetually infects all fanbases regardless of reality each offseason. We’re talking about hope derived from a dispassionate evaluation of the actual facts. Those facts more or less consist of the following:

1. A young, talented playoff team from last year returns virtually the entire roster2. There is excellent coaching from both the defensive and offensive coordinators (Mike Zimmer and yes, holy shit I can’t believe it either, Jay Gruden)3. On paper, the Bengals drafted pretty well (by this we mean we were mostly pleased by the selections after the fact, which is something wholly foreign to Bengals fans post draft)4. The Bengals did weird things like actually hire scouts, because in case you didn’t know, the Bengals don’t have those

Of course, it’s not all sunshine and farts…this is the Bengals we’re talking about. Already, top draft pick Dre Kirkpatrick suffered an injury that has him out at least the entire preseason. The schedule, which broke in an incredibly favorable way last year, should step up more than a few degrees of difficulty. There’s also the mountain of cap space the Bengals chose to sit on during free agency instead of adding players in positions of need in a year with lots of free agent depth. We understand wanting the Bengals “front office” to make moves in free agency is a fools errand because they are generally terrible at evaluating talent. However, when the outcome is either a) the player is good so hooray (no examples) or b) the player sucks and the Brown family is out a bunch of money (Antonio Bryant)…we’d prefer to see some action. More to the point, the blatant exploitation of a lack of true salary floor for profit is yet another giant middle finger from ownership to the fans. Oh and did we mention the Steelers and Ravens are always seemingly in the way?

More than any specific potential hurdles facing the Bengals this season, however, there remains a general lingering stink from 20+ years of ownership under Mike Brown. The last time things looked this good in Bengaldom was going into 2005 when Carson Palmer, Chad Johnson and friends were poised to break out. The Bengals managed to ruin that 2005 young nucleus basically within one year. That 2005 crop of players arguably had more talent than the current crop led by Andy Dalton and AJ Green, so why won’t that simply happen again?

One reason that might surprise those not intimately familiar with the Bengals franchise (i.e., everyone) is Marvin Lewis. Most of you know Marvin as the guy who uses challenges with less success than Roger Federer (astonishing really). However, what you may not understand is that for a franchise run on the cheap by an incompetent family with no front office…Marvin Lewis is the sole force within the Bengals trying to make it a modern NFL franchise. So sure, Marvin re-signing with the Bengals for the third time is similar to a fat guy swimming with his shirt on (he’s ashamed but does it anyway). But realize that although Marvin may be a whatever head coach for the 31 other NFL teams, he’s very valuable to the Bengals. Perhaps he will bring the stability and structure to the organization that allows them not to ruin a promising young core of talent? Or at least, he may buy a couple of extra years before they’re ruined?

At any rate, for the first time most Bengals fans can remember, there is reason for actual hope. We suggest enjoying it a little, but not too much, because in all likelihood it’ll be snuffed out soon.

Wow can't believe wdr is drinking the kool aid as well. Barely scraping out wins against the browns and jags was apparently enough to give the whole city a chubby. Schedule gets harder and the losses on the d line (prob our best assest last year, depth of quality d linemen) will hit harder than anyone realizes. This is a classic 4 win bengal season (think 2010, coming off a "successful" 2009 season)... can't believe wdr isn't seeing right through this. Only thing interesting this year will be who the scapegoat will be- Dalton has already been annointed to carson status for some reason so we know it won't be him. Hope chad can talk to aj and warn him to get out of this town before his prime ends so his talent isn't completely wasted.

No one is anointing this team on this site. This is probably the best team Marvin has had on paper, but they are not Super Bowl contenders - huge difference. I think they are lucky to win 9 games this season.

The pessimistic 2012 case outlines like this:
1. The Offensive line sucks eggs as Boling waves a red cape at all the sackers of Dalton, who has to throw all the time because...
2. Ben Jarvis Green Ellis and the other backs are below average at best, and then when Dalton's not getting sacked...
3. AJ Green is triple covered because the other receivers all do a Jerome Simpson/Andre Caldwell impersonation...
4. Meanwhile on defense the cornerbacks can't cover anybody, the safeties can't cover anybody especially a tight end, and the linebackers are out of position too much.

The optimistic case is something like this:
1. Boling and the OL hold their own,
2. Somebody like Marvin Jones becomes a go-to WR when AJ Green is triple covered.
3. Dre Kirkpatrick gets healthy and has a lights-out rookie year

The problem for the 2012 Bengals is that their final winning percentage depends a huge amount on unproven/untested/so-far-look-very-bad players like Boling (who made Livings look good last year), Sanu/Jones/etc, Kirkpatrick, and so forth.

As much as this offseason wasn't a complete train wreck, they still essentially bet the house on a rookie guard and a now-injured not-that-great free agent pickup Wharton, while $15+ million sits in Mikey's bank that could have been used to pick up somebody's all-pro (for example a Carl Nicks -- the Bengals have enough cap space they could have signed a player like that). Classic Bungles, in other words.